


The Rise and Fall of Jurassic World, as Witnessed by Lex Murphy

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Category: Jurassic Park (1993), Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Lex Murphy's POV, Lex and Tim work at Jurassic World, ignores the second and third Jurassic Park movies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 06:38:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5037727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Lex and Tim work at Jurassic World, and that changes a few things. Not everything, but some things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rise and Fall of Jurassic World, as Witnessed by Lex Murphy

When Lex first finds out that they’re building a new version of Jurassic Park, she almost can’t believe it. Didn’t InGen learn anything from the first park? People died. Lex herself was almost killed more than once, first by an attacking tyrannosaur, then by a pack of raptors that had hunted her and Tim like they were prey.

But the lure of money is strong, she supposes bitterly, and she knows all too well that there are people out there who would do anything to meet a real, live dinosaur. Tim works with half a dozen of them. Any one of his colleagues would pay through the nose to see the creatures that could render their jobs obsolete.

Lex sends InGen and Masrani Global a strongly-worded letter, reminding them of what had happened with the original park. The CEO of Masrani Global sends back a carefully-polite one which promises not to repeat the mistakes of the previous park.

He clearly doesn’t understand that the central mistake of the previous park was creating dinosaurs in the first place.

Lex rages to Tim over the phone about it.

“Well, maybe things won’t go so bad, this time,” Tim says, in a reasonable voice – like Tim has any cause to be reasonable, when he is a palaeontologist studying the same things that nearly _killed and ate him_.

“Raptors, Tim,” says Lex flatly. “In the kitchen. Tyrannosaurus rex, stomping on our car–”

“I know,” says Tim, although Lex doubts he does. “But it’ll be okay, Lex. They’re being super-careful this time.”

Lex is overcome with a sudden sense of suspicion.

“Timothy Murphy,” she snaps, “did you _know_ about this?”

Tim’s uncomfortable silence is all the answer she needs.

“Tim–”

“They’ve offered me a job,” he blurts. “As an advisor. You know. On dinosaur behaviour and diet and everything. It’s a tremendous opportunity, Lex–”

Lex hangs up on him, her hands shaking.

But apparently Tim isn’t the only one they want to recruit, because two days later Lex gets a response from the letter she sent to InGen: an InGen rep, offering Lex the chance to design the computerized security systems for the new park herself. After all, says the InGen rep, Lex understands the flaws of the previous park’s systems better than anyone – she was _there_. It was Lex who brought the systems back online, who saved them all. Who better than her to ensure that the mistakes made by the previous park aren’t repeated?

When Lex was in college, studying computer engineering, she wrote a paper on Jurassic Park. She didn’t name the park, but it was obvious to those who knew about it what she was writing about. In her paper, Lex discussed the problems with the park’s security systems, and proposed a hypothetical security system which fixed all those flaws. At the time, Lex emailed a copy of her paper to several key people at InGen. She never received a reply, and supposed that no one at InGen had bothered to read it.

It’s possible, Lex thinks now, that she was wrong about that.

Lex agonises over whether or not to take the job, but in the end, it boils down to this: InGen and Masrani Global intend to go forward with the new park whether Lex signs on or not, and if they’re going to do that, Lex damn well wants to make sure everyone learns from the previous park’s mistakes.

Lex accepts the job offer.

Officially, Lex’s new job is to design the computer systems: security consultants will deal with the physical security elements. But Lex has a unique perspective on the previous park’s security flaws, having actually been there at the time, and a week later she flies out to meet with the security consulting team and the architects Masrani Global has hired to build the new park. Tim is there too, full of facts about how much damage the buildings will need to withstand from the dinosaurs, how much space the dinosaurs will need, and so on and so forth. Together, they work on a set of blueprints that eliminate Jurassic Park’s mistakes.

Lex designs the new computer systems for the park from scratch. She has a team of computer systems experts that assist with the build, but it’s all to Lex’s overall design, and Lex checks every piece of code herself. It’s a long, laborious process.

Tim is busy too, giving advice on what dinosaurs InGen should resurrect, and what their requirements will be. His advice ranges on everything from diet to socialisation to hunting behaviour. It’s Tim who encourages them to produce as few likely-to-be-aggressive dinosaurs as possible, focusing instead on the ones believed to be more sociable. These are mostly herbivores (although, as Tim points out, herbivorous does not equal non-aggressive; just take a look at Pachycephalosaurus). A lot of the original park’s data on the dinosaurs they engineered was lost when the park was abandoned, left in degrading computer systems or mouldering papers on-site. A team rescued what they could, two years before Lex and Tim were hired, but there’s still a lot of gaps in their information that Tim needs to fill in as best they can.

It’s Lex and Tim together who come up with the plans for tracking the dinosaurs. Simply counting the number of dinosaurs in a given area isn’t enough; how are you supposed to tell from mere numbers which dinosaur isn’t where it’s supposed to be, or where any escaped dinosaurs have gotten to? Isla Nublar might be small for an island, but there’s still more than enough space to lose a large dinosaur in. Fortunately, tracking systems are more advanced, these days; all you need is a damage-resistant implant, and each dinosaur can be located through GPS. This way, any dinosaur can  be located at any given time. It’s much better than Jurassic Park’s haphazard system.

As soon as Lex’s system goes online, Jurassic World begins producing dinosaurs. Lex feels a certain amount of trepidation, but she also knows that there’s no way that Jurassic Park’s mistakes can be replicated, and takes comfort from that. Lex’s contract ends as soon as the computer system is tested, but to her surprise, Masrani Global offers her a new one – as the park’s permanent systems administrator.

By this time Tim is living on-site, advising the scientists and zookeepers constantly on everything they need to know about the dinosaurs they’re creating and looking after. It doesn’t look like Tim will be quitting any time soon. Lex thinks about what the new contract could mean: good pay, an interesting job, a chance to work in the same vicinity as her brother, and most importantly, the opportunity to make sure the calamity of Jurassic Park never occurs again.

Lex accepts.

* * *

For eight years, everything goes exactly as planned. Then, slowly, but surely, it all goes to hell.

It starts with the raptors. The first thing Tim did when he was hired was contact his long-time mentor, Dr Alan Grant, and ask him to write a paper on the behaviour of the velociraptors at Jurassic Park, with a particular focus on the dangers they represented.

Lex has only met Dr Grant a handful of times, over the years, but she thinks of the man fondly. She still remembers the way he rescued her and Tim from the dinosaurs, and how carefully he looked after them both during the most terrifying episode of Lex’s life.

She knows from Tim that Dr Grant’s married to Dr Sattler, these days. Apparently they even have a kid – a teenager, by now. Lex can’t imagine a more suitable father for anyone. (She loves her own father dearly, but he never rescued her from killer dinosaurs.)

Dr Grant had been quite happy to write the requested paper, detailing all the reasons why creating raptors was a bad idea: they were highly intelligent, extremely vicious pack animals, both stronger and faster than a human being, and generally very, very dangerous.

So Lex doesn’t understand, any more than Tim does, why InGen has brought a quartet of raptors to life.

Tim tells her all about it over lunch.

“Raptors,” he says. “The one thing I told them to never, ever resurrect. I can’t believe it.”

“What are they going to do with them?” Lex asks. There’s a tight ball of dread in her chest. She barely touches her meal. “They’re not going to let the public near them, are they?”

“No, thank God,” Tim says. “The raptors are being kept in a special containment pen, some distance from the rest of the park. But nobody will tell me what’s going on, they keep saying it’s classified.”

Lex takes a deep breath. She and Tim inherited a large amount of InGen stock when their grandfather passed away, enough to cause trouble if they feel unhappy.

Simon Masrani was a friend of Lex’s grandfather; it’s why he inherited ownership of Islar Nublar in the first place. Lex leaves a message with his secretary, playing on the relationship Masrani had with her grandfather, explaining her concerns with the raptors.

She doesn’t expect him to fly out to the island to inspect the newest additions to the park himself, and her respect for him climbs hugely.

“I have spoken with the InGen representative here, a Mr Hoskins,” says Masrani, when he stops by Lex’s office. Lex is still stunned that he came out in person. “He is under instructions to keep you and Mr Murphy apprised of the situation with the raptors. After everything you went through, I can understand your concerns.”

Masrani smiles kindly, but without a hint of pity or condescension.

“The previous raptors killed people,” Lex says earnestly. “I faced them down myself, and it’s impossible to explain their – their diabolical intelligence. They’re just as clever as you or I. They have no pity, no mercy – they just hunt you down and kill you.”

Masrani nodded gravely.

“I see. Well, you will be glad to know that Dr Wu and his people have taken precautions, this time.”

“Precautions?” Lex echoes. Masrani nods.

“Certainly. They have deliberately engineered these new animals to be less vicious, and more sociable. Their ‘diabolical intelligence’, as you call it, has also been reduced a little. Dr Wu was very through in explaining the implications of the changes they’ve made to the raptors this time around, and I am confident that they will not be the danger they represented the first time.”

Lex stares at him blankly. She cannot imagine what the phrase ‘more sociable’ means when it comes to raptors, but she doubts it will make much difference.

“Oh,” she says. Then: “But what did they create the raptors _for?_ ”

“They wish to see if the raptors can be trained,” Masrani explains, and Lex can’t help it – the laughter comes bursting out of her, shocked and incredulous. Masrani gives her a disconcerted look, and Lex tries to rein in her reaction.

“I’m sorry,” she tells Masrani, when the giggles have died down, “it’s just – that’s something I didn’t expect to hear.”

“ _Trained?_ ” Tim says derisively, when Lex tells him. “They think raptors can be _trained?_ ”

“I know,” Lex sympathises.

Tim shakes his head.

“Well,” he says ruefully, “I pity the person they pick to train them.”

But ex-Navy seal Owen Grady isn’t the kind of man you pity, even if he has been employed to try and train raptors.

The thing that astonishes Lex and Tim, though, is that he _succeeds_.

“I don’t understand,” Tim splutters to Owen, when he hears that the raptors are responding to commands. “Raptors are highly antisocial, they don’t – they barely listen to their _alpha_ , let alone a human being they see as prey!”

Owen listens, his expression serious, but his eyes mildly amused.

“Well, my girls aren’t antisocial,” he says. “All you need to do is watch them interact to see that much.” He scratches his chin thoughtfully. “I guess Dr Wu made some important changes down in that lab of his.”

It’s the only explanation, but Lex and Tim are still uneasy. They have too many bad memories associated with raptors to ever feel comfortable knowing that there are raptors in the park, contained or not.

Worse, the raptors are only the first of several new dinosaurs that InGen recreates – each of them a predator. It’s been years since Jurassic World first opened, and visitor numbers are slowly creeping down; with profits decreasing, the people who run the park aren’t as willing to listen to Tim, when he urges them to avoid the carnivorous dinosaurs. The park is losing guests, they say. People want to see exciting dinosaurs, they say. Placid herbivores just don’t cut it anymore. Carnivores are what people want to see.

Tim despairs as InGen brings several new, aggressive, predatory species to life. Lex double-checks the newly-installed security systems on the new dinosaur paddocks with wary patience.

It all comes to a head two years later, when the park’s newest asset breaks out of containment.

Tim has been saying for months that the new dinosaur is a problem: its enclosure is far too small for something of its projected size – already it doesn’t have enough room to run around in, and it’s still growing – and far more concerning is the animal’s complete lack of socialisation. The more predatory animals might not interact with humans, barring the occasional veterinary check-up, but they do at least interact with each other. The park’s newest project doesn’t even have that level of interaction: while the Indominus rex did have a sibling at one point, the Indominus apparently _ate_ it. Tim pointed out at the time that this was a worrying indicator of high levels of aggression: no one paid him any attention.

Most concerning of all, though, is the fact that no one knows what makes up the Indominus’ DNA. According to InGen, that information is classified.

Lex is on her lunch break when one of the security officers comes running, with the news that against every protocol, a group of _idiots_ has just walked into the Indominus enclosure. Lex uses the loudspeaker system and tells them to get out of there immediately. She watches the monitor helplessly as the group is attacked by the Indominus, and stares in horror as the dinosaur breaks free of the enclosure.

The park’s most dangerous animal is on the loose, and there’s nothing Lex can do to stop it.

The park’s head of security is livid, and the moment Claire Dearing steps into the control room he has a screaming match with her over the fact that she allowed people into the Indominus enclosure. Lex ignores the yelling as best she can, trying to track the Indominus. Its tracking device is showing up on the system, alright, but it’s completely stationary. Lex has a gut feeling that something is wrong. She calls her brother, and asks him to get to the control room ASAP.

“What have you got?” Dearing asks. Grady hovers over her shoulder.

“According to the system, the Indominus is here,” Lex gestures at the map of the island.

“So we know where it is,” says Grady, looking closely at Lex’s frown. “That’s good, right?”

“Maybe,” Lex allows. A moment later Tim bursts into the room, and jogs over to Lex.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

“The Indominus is out of containment,” Lex says, and watches Tim pale, and then swear.

“Oh Christ, it’s like the raptors all over again,” he moans, running his hands through his hair.

“What are you talking about?” Grady asks. “The raptors have never escaped. I’d know.”

“Not these raptors,” Lex clarifies. Her palms are sweaty. She can feel her heart beating fast. “The original raptors, from Jurassic Park. Tim and I were there. John Hammond was our grandfather.”

“You were _there?_ ” says Dearing, looking startled. She knows about the familiar relationship between Tim and Lex and their grandfather, of course, but clearly this part is news to her.

“We barely survived,” says Tim, and adds with a flash of dark humour, “worst vacation ever.” He sobers. “But listen, if the I-rex is out of containment, you’ve got a real problem on your hands.”

“We know,” says Dearing shortly.

“No, you _don’t_ know,” says Tim, with more patience than Lex could have managed. “The I-rex is dangerous in a way that the other animals aren’t. Her behaviour is anomalous, even by dinosaurian standards. She’s hyper-aggressive – she attacked every keeper she had, from hatching, even the ones feeding her, to the point where her food is delivered by a crane. Normally we try and have the keepers feed them – from a safe distance, of course – as it encourages a positive relationship between the keepers and the animals. Then there’s the fact that she killed and ate her only sibling; that might be normal for something like a shark, but among dinosaurs, it’s weird, and definitely worrisome.”

“And then there’s the fact that the Indominus systematically attacked the enclosure, looking for weak points,” Lex adds. “I used to watch her do it, on the security feeds. That speaks of a certain level of intelligence.”

“If this thing is super-aggressive _and_ intelligent…” Grady begins, looking worried.

“There’s something else weird going on,” says Lex, and points to the stationary red dot on-screen – the reason why she called Tim in the first place. “Tim, look, this is the Indominus. She hasn’t moved at all in the last twenty minutes. Isn’t that kind of… strange?”

Tim agrees that it is.

Dearing turns to the head of security, who is already arranging for a team to go out and take the Indominus down. She tells him to use any means necessary.

Unfortunately, it’s at this moment that Masrani enters the room, and shoots down that plan. He points out how much money went into the Indominus’ creation, and says that he wants the asset containment team to use non-lethal means of containment and retrieval only. Grady starts arguing angrily, only to be told that Masrani’s word is final.

It’s Lex who says, “Understand this, sir: if they fail, and Jurassic World goes the same way as Jurassic Park, then it will be because of _your_ decision.”

Masrani falters for a moment, the thought of Jurassic Park giving him pause, but then his expression firms.

“Understood,” he says, and Lex knows that there’s no changing his mind.

Lex and Tim watch on the monitors as the asset containment team go out after the Indominus. They watch as a member of the team finds the Indominus’ torn-out implant. They continue watching as the Indominus reveals itself, and proceeds to tear apart the entire asset containment team. One by one, static replaces each team member’s audio and visual feeds.

Tim grabs the nearest wastepaper basket and throws up. No one comments, too aghast by the grisly sight they’ve just witnessed.

Dearing’s face is full of quiet horror: Grady’s is grim.

Lex slowly turns to Masrani, who looks disbelieving. Her voice is loud in the quiet of the room as she says, “You were warned.”

Then she walks out of the room, telling Lowery to take over for the moment.

Out in the hallway, Lex takes deep breaths, trying to calm the sense of panic she feels. It’s all happening all over again, just like the first time, and the thought fills her with a sense of rising terror, no matter how she tries to contain it. Because this time is so much worse: last time, there were a only few dozen employees in the park and a few guests, most of whom left on the boat to the mainland before the storm hit, missing the calamity that followed when the security systems went down. This time, there are literally thousands of innocent, unsuspecting guests wandering around the park. Many of them are kids.

Lex closes her eyes, because this is eerily like the nightmares she used to have in the early days of the park, come horribly true. She continues her deep breathing, centres herself, and tells herself that she can do this.

Then she walks back into the control room, orders Lowery out of his chair, and sits down at his workstation.

“What are you doing?” Dearing asks.

“Finding the Indominus the old-fashioned way,” Lex replies as she types.

“Dinosaur number count?” Tim asks, hanging over her shoulder to see what she’s typing.

“Dinosaur number count,” Lex agrees.

She checks the numbers of each paddock, one by one, and comes up with a paddock that has too many dinosaurs in it.

“It’s in the Apatosaurus paddock,” Lex announces.

“Send out another team,” says Masrani, looking haggard. “Tell them to use whatever methods they must.” He looks like the deaths of the previous team are weighing on him, as well they should.

As another team is sent out, Dearing orders that the northern section of the park be evacuated. A sudden gasp from her attracts Tim’s attention.

“What is it?” Tim asks Dearing.

“My nephews,” she says. “They’re visiting the park. They’re out there, somewhere.” Dearing scrambles to pull out her phone, and calls her assistant. Dearing’s face turns even more worried as she listens to the voice on the other end, just loud enough for Lex to make out the frantic tone.

Dearing hangs up, and her expression is one of dread.

“Are your nephews okay?” Tim asks. Dearing starts to shake her head, and says, “I don’t know. They gave my assistant the slip. She thinks they were heading in the direction of the gyrospheres, but she can’t see them anywhere.”

Lex thinks of being thirteen years old, alone with Tim in Jurassic Park while dinosaurs hunted them, and for a moment she can’t breathe.

“Lex!”

Then Tim’s hands clamp down on her shoulders, and he’s looking into her eyes.

“Lex, breathe. I’m sure the kids are fine. They’re not going to go through what we went through. Just breathe, okay?”

Lex pulls in a breath past the tightness in her chest.

“Gyrospheres,” she mutters, and brings up the gyrospheres tracking data. All of the gyrospheres are back where they are supposed to be – except for gyrosphere number 21. Lex wonders what the odds are of it containing Dearing’s nephews.

“What are their names?” Lex asks.

“What?” Dearing looks confused.

“Your nephews. What are their names?” Lex repeats.

“Um, Zach and Gray,” says Dearing.

“How old are they?” Lex’s fingers fly over the keyboard as she types, hacking into gyrosphere number 21.

“Uh, well…” Dearing looks uncertain. “Zach’s about… this tall…” she holds up her hand, “and Gray’s…” and she lowers it a little.

“I asked for their age, not their height,” says Lex. “Here we go.”

A video feed pops up on-screen, from the camera mounted on the inside of gyrosphere number 21.

Lex’s eyes blow wide as she sees what’s on screen.

Tinny screaming comes through the audio feed as the Indominus tries to break through the reinforced glass of the gyrosphere. Everyone crowds around the workstation monitor, staring in horror.

“Oh my God!” Dearing makes an abortive movement as though to grab for the computer mouse. “Do something!”

Vivian is already speaking into her headset from where she sits at her workstation, giving the asset containment team the location of the Indominus and the gyrosphere. She tells them to hurry.

A human form crawls past the gyrosphere camera – a teenage boy, pulling a younger one along behind him. Lex gets a brief glance at the younger one’s expression, set in a rictus of terror.

The next moment they’re gone from the screen, and the Indominus roars, and follows.

“What’s happening?” asks Dearing, clutching the back of Lex’s chair. No one answers her.

It’s ten minutes before the asset containment team reaches the broken gyrosphere. Lex is wearing a headset of her own by then, and listens as the head of the team reports that the boys’ footprints lead to a cliff overhanging the river; it seems likely that they escaped the Indominus, by jumping into the river.

Lex feels a huge upswell of relief; until this moment, she hadn’t thought it possible that the two boys would escape. She knows enough about the Indominus to know that over long distances, the dinosaur can run faster than any human can. The two kids were lucky.

Dearing sees the relief on Lex’s face, and demands, “Are my nephews okay? Did the team find them?”

Lex shakes her head.

“The boys jumped into the river to escape the Indominus,” she says. “They should be fine, but the team doesn’t know where they are.”

Dearing takes a deep breath, steadying herself.

“My sister is going to kill me,” she mutters to herself, and then says, “Where’s Owen Grady?”

Vivian checks the security feeds.

“He’s in the visitor centre, trying to get into the labs,” she reports.

Dearing turns to the head of security.

“I need to find my nephews,” she says. “I’m putting you and Ms Murphy in charge in my absence.”

Lowery and Vivian exchange looks as Dearing leaves the control room.

Tim leans over Lex’s shoulder.

“I’m going to get some snacks from the snack machine,” he says. “It looks like you’re going to be here for a while.”

Lex doesn’t say anything, just looks at him gratefully, but Tim’s crooked smile tells her he understands.

* * *

Lex uses a search algorithm she's been working on for ages (it's still a bit buggy, but it works) to search the security video feeds from around the park for the Indominus. In the end, the second asset containment team manages to bring the Indominus down, not far from the aviary. Even the Indominus isn’t invulnerable to a harpoon gun to the chest, and Lex watches as on-screen, the animal falls to the ground. It dies almost immediately, but in agony. It’s not a merciful death. Just as well that Lex isn’t feeling very merciful, then.

So far the Indominus has killed an entire asset containment team, the security guard who was stationed at the Indominus enclosure, and nearly killed a couple of kids. The thought makes Lex feel sick. It’s rampaged through the park, killing at least one Ankylosaur and an entire herd of Apatosaurs. Lex remembers being thirteen years old, and feeding an Apatosaurus from the branches of a tall tree. They were placid, gentle animals, and Lex can’t help but feel sorry for their pointless deaths. Not as sorry as she is for the men who died today, of course; that’s a whole different thing. But she’s sorry, nonetheless.

Half an hour after the asset containment team kills the Indominus, Dearing’s nephews are found in the ruins of the original Jurassic Park, in the process of trying to restart one of the old, abandoned cars.

One of the team members wanders through the old park complex, and Tim jokes that he wants them to bring him back some of the abandoned merchandise that he and Lex can see on-screen.

“I nearly got eaten by raptors, and I didn’t even get a t-shirt,” Tim says. “Lex, tell them to bring me back one of those, would you?”

Normally Lex is more professional than that, but given the kind of day she’s had, she doesn’t think anyone will blame her for the fact that she does.

The entire population of Jurassic World is currently contained in the southern section of the park. Fights are breaking out as tired, hungry, overcrowded people fall into conflict with one another.

Dearing reappears in the control room, with two exhausted, grubby boys in tow, and orders the northern section of the park to be reopened, barring the Apatosaurus paddock.

A member of security walks over to Tim, and holds up a shirt with the original Jurassic Park logo on it.

“Apparently I’m supposed to give you this,” he says, and Tim cracks up. He thanks the man for the shirt, and turns to grin at Lex, shaking his head.

“I wasn’t serious,” he says.

“I know,” Lex says, and smiles back wearily. After a moment Lex takes off her headset and stands, stretching, before approaching the two boys.

“Hey,” she says. “I hear you two have had quite a day.”

They look at her. The younger kid still has a traumatised look, but the older one mostly looks tired.

“You could say that,” says Zach dryly.

“Believe it or not, we understand,” says Tim, joining Lex. “You know that building you went into, the one with the Jurassic Park sign?”

The boys regard him warily.

“Yeah,” says Gray.

“That was the original park,” says Tim. “When I was ten, Lex and I were visiting it when all the security fences went down and all the dinosaurs escaped. Me and Lex were almost eaten first by a T-rex, and then by a pack of raptors.”

The kids’ eyes widen.

“A T-rex?” Gray repeats, a quaver in his voice.

“Yeah,” said Tim. “I was so scared, I threw up.”

“I nearly threw up, when the – the big white dinosaur was trying to get us in the gyrosphere,” Gray confesses.

“Yeah, but you didn’t,” says his brother, in what is clearly meant to be a reassuring statement.

Lex glances at Dearing as she approaches.

“Why don’t we take you down to Ben and Jerry’s for some icecream?” she suggests, loud enough for Dearing to hear. “You’re probably hungry, after everything you’ve been through. And I know that after my day, I could really use some icecream right now.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” says Dearing. “Come on, guys.”

Lex puts Lowery in charge of the security systems in her absence, and the small group heads down to the icecream shop.

On the way, as Tim is talking loudly and cheerfully to the two boys, Lex says quietly to Dearing, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Dearing nods, looking lost, and they fall back a little from Tim and the kids.

“Their parents are going to need to know what happened,” says Lex.

Dearing closes her eyes, wincing.

“I know,” she says. “Believe me, I know. My sister’s never going to let me see them again.”

“The kids might seem okay, right now, but I can tell you from experience that they’re not,” says Lex bluntly. “It was six months after my experiences at Jurassic Park before I stopped getting nightmares every single night. I can remember jumping at noises or unexpected movements. My school grades went downhill. I stopped talking to my friends. These days I know that I had PTSD, but back then my parents didn’t know what to do with me.”

Dearing listens, looking worried.

“At the very least, your nephews are going to need to see a psychiatrist,” says Lex. “If they’re lucky, they’ll work through things faster than I did. But it could take them a long time before they’re okay. And their parents need to understand that.”

“Right,” says Dearing. “Can – could you talk to them? After I explain the situation?”

Lex considers. She thinks of how much easier her life might have been, after Jurassic Park, if her parents had had some understanding of what was going through.

“Sure,” she says.

They rejoin Tim and the boys. Zach is laughing a little at Tim’s terrible jokes, but Gray is shaken and silent over his icecream.

At Zach’s prompting, Tim explains what happened to the original park, with Lex occasionally butting in to add her own comments. Zach isn’t the only one who listens; Gray’s eyes are wide, and Dearing is clearly as disturbed and fascinated as her nephews are by the tale.

“So,” Lex says, when Tim is done, “if you ever need to talk to someone about what happened today, someone who’s going to understand, you can always call Tim or I, okay?”

Lex can remember how much it helped her to call Dr Grant, years ago. She hopes that she and Tim can help Gray and Zach just as much. Maybe their assistance won’t be needed; maybe the boys’ parents will be able to manage the circumstances better than Lex’s own parents did. But she’d like to pay Dr Grant’s support forward to these kids, if she can.

Tim pulls out a notepad and pen from his shirt pocket, and writes out his and Lex’s cell phone numbers. He tears out the page, and gives it to Zach, who accepts it with a quiet nod of thanks.

Dearing takes the boys back to their hotel room, and then rings her sister. From what Lex can hear from Dearing’s end, it’s not a pleasant conversation. Dearing cries.

After a while, Dearing puts Lex on, and Lex tells Zach and Gray’s mother everything she told Dearing, and more. She goes into detail about what the boys have experienced, and the kind of support and resources they’re going to need to recover.

Dearing’s sister is crying as well, but she thanks Lex for her advice.

“If you ever need to talk to anyone about it, feel free to call me,” says Lex.

Afterwards, she goes and finds Tim. He’s in the Apatosaurus paddock, staring down at one of the dead Apatosaurs. His expression is sad, and pensive.

Lex joins him.

“It could have been much worse,” she tells him.

“I know,” says Tim. “But it was bad enough.”

Lex thinks of everything that has happened, and silently agrees.

“But think how much worse it could have been, if we hadn’t been involved from the beginning,” she says.

Tim thinks about it.

“Yeah,” he says. “I guess there’s that.”

They find an empty patch of grass, and watch the sun go down.

 

 


End file.
